MR. RUSKIN'S WORK.*
WE need not hesitate to accept this volume as a text-book of Ruskin's principles and practice, not authorised, indeed, but authoritative, so far as a discipleship at once intimate and intelligent can make it so. Mr. Cook is not, it is true, addixtus jurare in verbs even of Mr. Ruskin. He is not an Infallibilist ; or, to use his own image, he distinguishes between utterances that are and are not ex cathedrd, dogmas that are de fide and what we may call pious opinions. " But," he says, "this liberty of rejection is strictly limited to such
things as are not of the faith." Such an assurance of ortho- doxy is only decent ; and, as long as one retains the right of drawing the line for oneself, it will not be found practically burdensome. Our present purpose, however, is not to criticise Mr. Cook's volume, but rather to describe it, as being certainly the most important utterance on the Ruskin philosophy that has yet been given to the world from the outside.
First, then, we have a chapter headed " The Gospel according to Ruskin," a title which, we venture to think, can hardly approve itself to the teacher. It is an excellent head- line for an evening paper, but should, we think, have been disused after it bad served that purpose. With Mr. Cook's exposition of Mr. Ruskin's "Principles of Art," we have no fault to find. On the contrary, it seems to us excellent. Excellent, too, is his next chapter, " Applications to Life," beginning with the epigrammatic remark that " no Gospel is good for anything that is not good for everything," and going on to state the Ruskinian views in matters social and political. Bat the chapter does not profess to be more than a general statement of what may be called the principle of this applica- tion to life. For the details, we must go to the second part of Mr. Cook's volume, entitled " Some Aspects of Mr. Ruskin's Work." Here we have " Mr. Ruskin and Oxford," giving an account of his professional and his personal work. What Mr. Cook has to say on this subject is exceedingly interesting. To this personal work, be traces the origin of those hopeful movements of which the Universities' Settle- ments are a type. Very noteworthy, too, is the account of Mr. Ruskin's method and manner of lecturing. One instance we may venture to quote :—
" But perhaps the most effective piece of what may be called the lecturer's stage-play was one which occurred in the Readings in " Modern Painters." ' Mr. Ruskin was expatiating, as was his wont, on the vandalism of the modern world. On an easel beside him was a water-colour drawing by Turner of (I think) Leicester. The old stone bridge is picturesque,' he said, isn't it ? But of course you want something more "imposing" nowa- days. So you shall have it.' And taking his paint-box and brush, Mr. Ruskin rapidly sketched in on the glass what is known in modern specifications as a' handsome iron structure.' Then,' he continued, 'you will want, of course, some tall factory chimneys, and I will give them to you galore,' which he proceeded to do, in like fashion. The blue sky of heaven was pretty, but you can- not have everything, you know.' And Mr. Ruskin painted clouds of black smoke over the Turner sky. Your "improvements,"' he went on, ' are marvellous "triumphs of modern industry," I know ; but somehow they do not produce nobler men and women, and no modern town is complete without a gaol and a lunatic asylum to crown it. So here they are for you.' By which time not an inch of the Turner drawing was left visible under the improvements' painted upon the glass. But for my part,' said Mr. Ruskin, taking his sponge, and with one pass of the hand sweeping away those modern improVements against which he has inveighed in vain in so many printed volumes—' for my part, I prefer the old."
• Studies in Ruskin: Some Aspects of the Work and Teaching of John Ruskin, By Edward T. Cook, KA. Orpington : George Allen. 1890. What may be called the strictly artistic side of Mr, Ruskin's work is fully described in the chapter entitled " The Ruskin Drawing-School." A brief account follows of Mr. Ruskin's connection with Mr. Maurice's foundation, " The Working Men's College," where he taught for a time. " The May-Queen's Festival at Whitelands Training College," "St. George's Guild and Museum," the industrial experiments of the Langdale Linen Industry, clothmaking in the Isle of Man, " George Thomson and Co.," a woollen and worsted manufactory conducted on high co-operative principles, are successively described. To some readers, the seventh chapter of Part IL, " Mr. Ruskin and the Booksellers," will be the most interesting in the whole volume. If any sceptic should be disposed to ask, How do these things actually work oat,—do they pay P' the Orpington publishing business furnishes a triumphant answer. We have not space for the details ; but the result is certainly a triumph. We shall give it in Mr. Cook's own words :—" Mr. Ruskin's profits are steadily growing every year, and exceed, I imagine, those made by any other serious author of the time." His system of publishing " in the wilds of Kent " has —like most other schemes of his devising—been derided as impractical, visionary, and mad. On closer inspection, does there not seem to be some method in Mr. Ruskin's " mad work "P To put the thing into figures : from one issue of a single book, the new edition of Modern Painters, Mr. Ruskin's profit will not be less than £6,000. But then, he is Mr. Ruskin. Few can afford to stand alone without the help of the " Row." We can only mention the appendices, giving notes of some of the Oxford lectures, and some highly interesting plates, in which we have specimens of Mr. Ruskin's own work as a draughtsman. Mr. Cook's volume has fairly earned a place in every Ruskin library.
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